Hello fellow bus lanes access supporters,

I thought I would dig a little into PCC's councillor Candlish's response to me when I queried the issue around bus lanes access. I have of course responded to this and also asked for a copy of the recommended (by UK govt) consultation with the public over the issue. Strangely weeks have passed now with no comment forthcoming from this public figure representing part of Portsmouth. I realise he is new councillor but I'm not too impressed from what I have seen so far. 

I thought I would share with you all the arguments put forward by Cllr Candlish to illustrate his reasoning. 

1. To promote bus usage and traffic flow. - Really Cllr? but are you not running that experiment with the private hire vehicles? the ones that stop to drop hires from the lanes and some sadly even park in the bus lanes at times. This hardly improves  traffic flow at all. Don't you monitor your experiment?
2. To promote bicycle use in a dense city and shelter (protect the cyclists). Really Cllr? So protecting certain vulnerable users now comes to the fore with the Cllr also commenting that they take up little room. Now what other vulnerable user needs protecting and doesn't take up much room ?. No, the Cllr would rather just prosecute these less desirable road users. 
3. The Cllr claims adding more vehicles would add more clutter to the bus lanes and provide more vehicles of different speeds that would deter cyclists. Really Cllr?, You already have 3 types of vehicle using the lanes, buses , cyclists and of course your experiment. Exactly how would motor cyclists add the differing speeds and to claim that such a change would deter cyclists is simply rubbish , they will use them if they are provided and of course should use them. 
4. The Cllr's final claim is that small motor cycles are a good option for travel within Portsmouth and would help with issues with parking. congestion and air quality. Really Cllr?, the same would also be accurate for all motorcycles and this does show what I sense is a bit of prejudice creeping into the Cllr's arguments. To try and separate by size of a motorcycles's engine is ridiculous as the benefits of motorcycles are present across the whole range and are far better than cars both in all the issues the Cllr mentions. 

So there we more or less have it. The Cllr arguments simply dont stand up to scrutiny and I personally believe the underlying reason is down to a prejudicial attitude to motorcyclists especially the big ones by the look of it. Is his judgement suitable to be involved with Portsmouth City transport, he's a so called Cabinet Minister for Transport. Again, particularly the Portsmouth based folks, why not let him know?,  This won't be my last communication with him either but he may use the 'not from around here' excuse , which of course as a cop out as I'm a regular user of Portsmouth's roads.

More soon when I go into more detail of the response from a member of PCC's safety team, who I will not name as he looks to have a proper job with PCC and not who I would called a public facing chap like Cllr Standlish. 

Thanks for your support.